The steel I-beam, jutting from the end of a lift truck, was equipped with a power winch and cable used to lift bales of compacted waste. Bowers, operating the winch with a remote control box, was standing directly under the beam when a chain connecting it to the lift truck snapped, Weissing said.

Bowers had been employed for nine months at the waste center in the 2900 block of Northwest 48th Street, an unincorporated area near Pompano Beach.